POLICE BRIEFS; Two Gunmen Rob Pizza Hut and Employees of Money

Article excerpt

Two masked men forced four employees to lie on the ground at gunpoint Sunday and robbed them and the cash registers at the Pizza Hut at 11018 St. Augustine Road before fleeing into the darkness.

Four employees told police that two men, one wearing a black ski mask, leather jacket, pants and gloves, and another with a white bandanna across his face, walked in at 8:58 p.m. and ordered them to get on the floor.

Telling them to stay there or "I'm gonna shoot everybody in here," the gunmen demanded their wallets, only to throw them to the floor when they found nothing more than a dollar or two in them, police said.

One employee said he learned about the robbery as he walked out of the cooler and saw the leather-clad gunman point a small black handgun at him and ordered him on the floor with the others. When the gunmen learned he was the manager, one of them pulled him off the floor, took his wallet and pulled an undetermined amount of cash out of it before tossing it to the floor. One gunman ordered the manager to take him to the cash registers, and handed the money inside one of them to the second gunman, police said. But when the gunmen learned the other cash register had a time lock on it, they fled out a side entrance and disappeared.

A fifth employee told police he heard the commotion when he was in the bathroom, and stayed put.

Police searched the area, but found no suspects.

Following are the crimes and other incidents reported recently in Mandarin and Northwest St. Johns County, according to the Jacksonville and St. Johns County sheriff's offices:

DUVAL

-- A man burst in on his ex-girlfriend while she was having sex in her home in the 11000 block of Lake Ride Drive, confronted her new boyfriend and was arrested Tuesday on charges of burglary and resisting arrest, police said.

Police said the couple were on the bedroom floor when the suspect walked in at 9:15 a.m. and kicked the boyfriend between the legs. The boyfriend forced the suspect out of the room and into the kitchen, where the intruder waved a knife at him. …